BAY CITY — After several months with a skeleton crew, the Bay City Police Department’s Detective Bureau has some new blood and welcomed relief.

Nate Kamp, a Bay City police officer since 2000, worked his first day as a detective Tuesday, becoming the bureau’s third investigator. Kamp’s sergeant started him off with six investigations — stalking, bounced checks and breaking and entering complaints.

Kamp, 35, previously served as a patrol officer, a resource officer stationed at Bay City Central High School and spent three years working undercover with the department’s VIPER Unit and FBI Safe Streets Task Force.

“Working with the FBI and doing major criminal investigations with them as far as drugs and violent crime has certainly helped me,” Kamp said. “I’ve learned a great deal working with them.

“I really enjoyed investigating so when the position became available, I applied for it,” he continued. “It seemed like a natural fit.”

In addition to putting his experience to use, Kamp said he’s eager to learn new skills.

“We really took a hit,” said Sgt. Gordon Cameron, supervisor of the bureau. “Even I took cases and did interviews for them.”

Kamp’s presence and experience should undercut some of the pressures affecting others in the bureau.

“It’s going to be a huge benefit to us, the department as a whole and the citizens of Bay City, really,” Cameron said. “We can start investigations sooner than we were before.”

The bureau has 115 open investigations.

During his first day, Kamp investigated a stalking case and accompanied a fellow detective to the Nathan Weidner Children’s Advocacy Center to observe an interview with a victimized child, all steps toward Kamp getting his sea legs.

“Rich, Brian and I are going to help him get his feet wet and get acclimated,” Gordon said, adding the process won’t take long. “Nate’s been around a while. He knows what he’s doing, he’s a veteran.”

“It’ll be very helpful,” Cecchini said of Kamp joining the bureau. “The two detectives have been busy and the sergeant has been helping out on cases, so has the lieutenant. This will free them up. We’re very happy to be able to have another detective on board and it should work out very well.”

Cecchini said he received several applications for the position.

“It’s a competitive process,” he said. Kamp “tested very well among the other candidates. One of the things we look at in the process is prior work performance and he’s been a superb employee. He has very good credentials. He works very hard, and he’s an intelligent guy. He gives me eight hours of work for eight hours of pay.”

Cecchini and Cameron said they plan on putting Kamp through additional education, such as homicide investigation training and interview and interrogation school. When possible, Kamp will take courses at Delta College, Cecchini said.

The plan is for Kamp to investigate diverse cases, rather than focus on a particular type.

“I’m trying to give him a taste of a wide variety of crimes, anywhere from frauds to assaults,” Cameron said.

“Being the new guy, I’m sure he’ll get some interesting cases,” Cecchini added.

When the need arises, though, Kamp will work closely with his colleagues.

“When we have a major crime, like a homicide, the detective bureau works as a team,” Cecchini said. “There is one detective that is the case agent, one handles the scene, one handles witnesses or does interviews. It’s not like TV where one guy does all the work.”

Despite the additional detective, patrol officers will still be expected to help out on investigations as well, the chief said.

“Patrol officers should be doing follow-ups when they can,” he said. “We’ll still emphasize that, but it will help having the additional manpower in the detective bureau. We want a timely resolution to our caseload so victims aren’t waiting and we can bring suspects to justice. We want to prevent other people from being victimized, so time is of the essence.”

Cecchini added that a new officer will not be hired to fill Kamp’s previous patrol assignment, nor will a fourth detective be joining the bureau any time soon.

“Right now, we’re going to stay at three,” he said. “We had to shift some people from VIPER and the FBI Safe Streets Task Force just to fill patrol, because patrol is basically our bread-and-butter.”

Kamp, though, is proud to be among such an echelon in the police force.

“I look forward to the challenges and the opportunity to serve the citizens of Bay City and I’ll do a good job for them,” he said.